1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of electrical connectors, and more particularly to a land grid array (LGA) socket having terminals with elongated resilient mating arms.
2. The Related Art
It is well know that a land grid array (LGA) socket basically comprises an insulative housing having a plurality of passageways arrayed thereof, each passageway has an electrical terminal accommodated therein to electrically connect two separate electronic components via mating beams of the terminal. With the trend toward miniaturization in computer technology, the LGA sockets are becoming smaller and smaller while the density of the terminals arrayed in the housing are becoming bigger and bigger. Due to the small size of the terminals, the mating beams are easily damaged because of large stress generated during mating of the beams with the electronic components. One solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,186,797 and 6,132,220. The arrangement of the terminals with respect to a base of an insulative housing of the socket is modified. In an electrical socket as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,797, a base plate of the socket defines an array of terminal holes arranged in a lattice-like array for receiving corresponding terminals therein. Respective rows of the terminal holes are oriented at a same angle, preferably 45 degrees, with respect to sides of the base plate. In this way, not only is miniaturization of the pitch of adjacent terminals enhanced, but also the performance of the terminals is improved. However, as disclosed in FIGS. 6 and 7, when the electronic component is fully pressed down to the insulative housing, mating beams of the terminals are completely pressed into the terminal holes, length of the mating beams is relatively short, which can not provide sufficient resilient mating force as required.
Solution to the above shortcomings is disclosed in prior filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/625,237, as shown in FIG. 6 of the patent application, a mating beam of a terminal extends toward an adjacent terminal with a free end of the mating beam being located above a mating beam of the adjacent terminal. This kind of configuration not only elongate the length of the mating beam so as to provide sufficient resilient force, but also make full use of the space between two adjacent passageways so as to increase the density of the terminals arrayed in the housing. However, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, when the mating beams of the two adjacent terminal are fully pressed down to their final positions, short circuit between two adjacent terminals might become possible if the mating beams of the terminals contact with each others, this kind of risk is unacceptable because it will badly destroy the electronic components connected with the LGA socket.
Therefore, it would be very beneficial to design an improved LGA socket having terminals which can not only provide sufficient resilient force but also avoid short circuit risk between adjacent terminals.